Saturday, August 21, 2010

Well May is sure to catch the other parties unaware with this move, no doubt the NDP or the CPC failed to appreciate the groundswell of support for polygamy simmering away in the Canadian public……

I guess when the all the good high ground is taken, a molehill beats floating in the swamp.

The Green Party of Canada will consider a motion Sunday on whether or not they will push to decriminalize polygamy.

Party members in a workshop on Saturday evening voted to send the motion to the full-Party plenary, where they'll debate and vote on it.

Speakers in the workshop were careful to define polygamy as a marriage between multiple spouses. They made a clear distinction between polygamy between consenting adults and a polygamist sect in Bountiful, B.C., where domestic abuse has been alleged, though charges were thrown out in 2009.

“It's a human rights issue,” said Trey Capnerhurst, a Green Party candidate in Edmonton East, noting that she is polyamorous.

This is serious RC (Radio Controlled) flying, this model of the C-17 must have taken thousands of hours to build and one single mistake will end your fun in a second, I suspect the ratio of build hours to fly hours is something like 1000 to 1. Can you imagine the poor guy having to explain to his wife “Honey you know that RC plane I was building for the last year?, well I broke it….”You will note this thing has real jet engines.

Ah cats and boxes, they were meant for each other, you put the box and find that your cat has taken up residence, instead of the expensive cat bed you just bought them! Then as you attempt to carry out any task around the box the cat ambushes you and snags your arm with their claws. After causing you pain and annoyance they ask for food!

Back in the 1980’s when I was in the army I was attached to Remote Pilotless vehicles (RPV) trials in DRES Suffield, Alberta, lots of interesting stuff going on but crude in comparison to these aircraft, but we knew it was going to be big.

QinetiQ today (14:40 UK time on Friday 16 July) announced that Zephyr, the leading solar powered high-altitude long-endurance (HALE) Unmanned Air System (UAS) has been flying for the past week, smashing a number of long-standing world records.

Currently flying high above the US Army's Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona, Zephyr has already passed the seven day / 168 hour mark and the clock is still running. This DOUBLES the unofficial world record for longest duration unmanned flight of 82 hours, 37 minutes set in 2008 and already held by Zephyr, and is well in excess of the current official world record of 30 hours 24 minutes set by Northrop Grumman's RQ-4A Global Hawk on 22 March 2001. read more here

A police officer used an online survey open only to police officers to gauge their feelings on the gun registry. 92% of the officers polled (the type that go into the field and take the risks) rejected the gun registry as a waste of time. Read the rest below;

Constable Randy Kuntz, a 22-year veteran with Edmonton Police Services (EPS), says the survey he conducted last year should be embraced by M.P.s when they vote on Bill C-391 that advocates dispatching the registry. Kuntz, an Exemplary Service Medal recipient, hopes to expose the grave mistake that the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police (CACP) is making by supporting the registry.

"The CACP is not some mindless group of misguided men and women who strive to oppress," says Kuntz. "There are many things they do very well as a unit. They simply have this one matter very wrong. The idea that the firearms registry is necessary and useful is wrong. They claim that they speak for all police officers on this matter. I think I have shown that they don't."

Kuntz used a popular police magazine to query officers across Canada if they supported the registry as a useful working tool. While he is first to admit the survey is not scientific, he believes it closely reflects the current climate among his fellow officers.

He expected a couple of hundred replies, but of the 2,631 officers who responded from every province and territory, 2,410 said the registry is useless as a crime fighting tool and many believe it poses a danger to police.

"The firearms database shows registered firearms and their owners," explains Kuntz. "No telling where those firearms are actually located, it just shows the law abiding citizen who owns legal firearms. There is nothing that says the firearms have to be in the possession of the person to whom they are registered. I can loan a firearm to anyone who possesses a valid license for that type of firearm.

"A person can have a valid possession/acquisition license, but not have any registered firearms in his name," he adds. "So, no firearms are on the database associated to his address. But, he can borrow a firearm and have it in his possession. What good is the registry, then? In the above example, the police officer checks the person and sees he has no firearms registered to him – so does the policeman think there are no firearms? Probably. It's a huge mistake on the police officer's part, relying on a database for your safety. It's ridiculous."

Kuntz conducted the survey on his own because he was very concerned that officers could be killed if they relied on the registry data. He also believes the CACP is misrepresenting the facts by continually claiming that a massive majority of police officers support the registry. There is often a gulf between management and employee interests in any organization and police work is no different.

"The CACP tells the public that it is a necessary tool for law enforcement," says Kuntz. "It is not. It just gives the perception of that. It was pretty overwhelming that those who responded (to the survey) were against the registry. Most of the respondents were constables and sergeants/detectives – guys and gals with their boots on the pavement, so to speak. They're the cops that the public meets and deals with on a daily basis. I respect Chief Rick Hanson of Calgary Police Services. He took a stand against the CACP's position on the registry. It takes a lot of guts to face others of equal rank and say, ‘you are wrong.'"

While Kuntz suspects the CACP isn't deliberately trying to deceive the public, he hopes his survey results will send the chiefs and M.P.s an important message. M.P.s are voting on September 22 on an opposition-led motion that is poised to kill Bill C-391 even before it gets to the 3rd reading stage. Many pundits predict that the vote could be very close.

"I believe that the CACP believes they are looking out for us," he explains. "That's the scary part. The registry was touted as a public safety program. The problem is, the registry does nothing to improve anyone's safety and it has cost the Canadian public two billion dollars, plus millions per year to maintain. If such a wasteful program was proposed in the private sector, it would have never got off the ground in the first place."

During debates on Bill C-391, some police services members told the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security that police were being warned by superiors against speaking publicly against the registry. Meanwhile, Kuntz's fellow officers have cautioned him that his stance is likely to have a career-limiting effect. During his 22 years as a police officer, he has worked in the Intelligence Analysis Unit, Cold Case Homicide, Integrated Intelligence Unit with EPS and RCMP, Criminal Investigation Section, Driver Training, and he has been acting Detective/Sergeant.

"I have had an excellent career thus far in the rank of Constable," he says. "I made it clear to our Human Resources recently that I would not be participating in any future promotion processes. Some things are more important than my personal ambitions. This is one of them. It is something that affects all Canadians as it is our money funding this wasteful program."

He also provides some sage advice for new recruits: "If you rely on a computer database for your safety, you are an idiot. Learn to investigate using your observation and communication skills. We were pretty successful in doing that for 100 years prior to the registry." via CSSA

What does a newspaper do when it’s is censored from printing news critical of the government, simple, blank spaces tell their story, something the censors can’t stop unless of course they burn down the newspaper or murder enough people. I can’t blame Chavez for all of Venezuela’s problems, a lot existed prior to him, but he is destroying what little that does work there. Columbia is going to look like a shining example of tolerance and progress compared to the cesspool that Venezuela is quickly becoming. No doubt the Chavez supporters will say we are blinded by US propaganda.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Since banning gun clubs, bottled water and pit bulls has worked so well, now the city of Toronto has decided to ban kite flying, I guess they didn’t read Kite Runner. Now that they are following in the footsteps of the Taliban (albeit for other reasons) I wonder what they will ban next, no doubt Miller would like to ban those annoying elections.

Now bloopers are a dime a dozen on Youtube, but if you want to see some in real life just go down to the local boat launch on a long weekend. I have seen some very downright hilarious to absolutely scary dangerous. This one gave me enough laughs that I would want to share it with you. Enjoy

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

My computer is finally working as it should, thanks to helpful souls at my work and Interactive computers. You realize what a role technology plays in your life when your computer dies. Try looking up the internet when your computer doesn’t work or just find a phone number, keep at least one phone book!

Some people ask what the harm in registering your firearms is. Well there is lots of answers to that, but basically it boils down to governments misusing that information. As you can see here, being on a list can be fatal. Think it can’t happen here? I won’t bet my life on it, I suggest that you don’t either. Governments have a long history of being nasty, including ours.

I certainly hope the Mayor of Toronto does not get any ideas, he already thinks law abiding gunowers are scum of the earth and dehumanizing a group is the first step.

Monday, August 16, 2010

Just weeks after the global media outrage over Israeli "crimes against humanity" in Gaza, the mainstream media is keeping strangely silent over allegations that Turkey is using chemical weapons against its own citizens in Kurdistan.

Anyone who grew up in the Cold war knew that Albania was the real nutbar (slightly more nutty than even North Korea) of the Eastern Bloc. The only people they trusted were the Chinese and that's because they were far away enough not to be a threat. As part of that paranoia the government under Enver Hoxha ordered each family to have it’s own bunker to fight the invading horde (west, east, north, south, it didn’t matter they were all hordes)After the government fell about the only thing Albania had lots of was these bunkers, an embarrassing reminder of a past most want to forget no doubt. However enterprising souls have been busy finding new uses for them as can be seen in this article.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

As I mentioned I love shooting and one aspect of that is pistol shooting. Today I was in Poco shooting a "Qualifier match" for International Pistol Competition (IPSC) I did ok considering I haven't had many chance to compete this year. Didn't get disqualified (they take safety seriously in these matches, make a mistake and that's it for the match, 2 goofs in a row and they will review your shooting to see if you need to retake the courses) But I have to pick up my speed a bit, as you can see in this comparison.